SAN FERNANDO CITY, La Union, (PNA) – All National Food Authority offices in Region 1 are now set to undertake all-out palay buying operation as the rice harvesting season has already started in some areas of the region.
NFA Region 1 Director Carlito Co said they are preparing as reports from his field offices show that some commercial buying stations have already started buying palay from farmers.
“Since the previous week, we have been monitoring sporadic harvests from our provinces. But this week, we noted that more areas have already started harvesting, ” said Co.
In fact, there are already farmers who sold their palay in NFA buying stations especially in the rice-producing province of Pangasinan.
“Reports given by our field offices in Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur and Pangasinan indicate that the harvest season is peaking up, so we have also to be ready to buy palay from our farmers,” he explained.
Corollary to this, the NFA is also set to open buying stations in strategic areas across the region.
At the same time, it already organized mobile procurement teams in Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, La Union and two in Pangasinan starting Sept. 9.
He said these mobile procurement teams will reach up to the remotest farms to buy palay from farmers in those areas.
“We could not just wait for the farmers to come to our buying stations to sell their palay. There are areas in the region where problems on transportation prevent farmers from selling their palay to the NFA, hence, they sell their palay to traders who go to their areas,” Co said.
Co disclosed that NFA will buy clean and dry palay from farmers at the government’s buying price of P17 per kilogram.
Farmers who sell to the agency could avail of incentives, whether they are individual or members of farmer cooperatives.
Incentive fees for individual farmer include delivery fee of P0.20-P0.50 per kilogram depending on the distance of their farm and another P0.20 per kilogram for drying fee.
For cooperatives, the incentives are the same as the individual farmers plus an additional P0.30 per kilogram cooperative development incentive fee.
For the main cropping season, the agency expects to buy around 1.4 million bags of palay which would serve as the region’s buffer stocks to ensure food sufficiency in the area.